5Oct
Post-It notes are great for jotting down ideas, one liners, and reminders to grab some milk on the way home, but they do have limitations. How many times have you dashed down a though or idea on a post it, cocktail napkin, or scrap sheet of paper, only to go searching for it hours or days later? I’m fairly certain we can all relate to this situation. Enter, Geistesblitz.
Much more than just a note taking tool, our new free iPhone application, Geistesblitz brings a whole new level to your ‘flashes of genius’ with on the spot submissions and online organization and storage. Users can create a free MindMeister account from within the application, and begin organizing thoughts-on-the-go instantly.
GEISTESBLITZ, (noun, m.) ['gæstes blîts]:
literally translated as mind flash, is a sudden insight or idea, often brilliant and unexpected. Consisting of the German words Geist (as in Zeitgeist) and Blitz (as in Blitzen, that lightning-fast reindeer of Santa Claus), it is probably best translated into English as brain wave or flash of genius.
Once signed in, all entries to the Geistesblitz app are instantly updated within the users’ default mindmap. As with all MindMeister maps, these ideas, reminders, thoughts can then be manipulated in a variety of ways. Connections can be made, links applied to ideas, and notes can even be added to your notes.
Posting a Geistesblitz to your default map
Perhaps you’ve struck upon an idea that’s taking on a life of it’s own with sub categories and notes. Why not break it out into it’s own mind map? Within your online account, a simple right click presents you with the option to take this one point and create a new map from it.
In addition to upping your GTD score, having Geistesblitz at your side ensures that no idea should ever be scribbled down on a scrap piece of paper, and consequently lost, ever again.
Grab the new free Geistesblitz application from the iTunes store today! And remember, if you like Geistesblitz, why not consider having the full power of MindMeister on your iPhone at all times?
29Sep
As many of you may have already noticed, there were a few hiccups with the release of our iPhone application update last week. Thankfully, we managed to locate the source of the problem and promptly shut off the application in the app store.
While we ran a number of tests here on our end, it seems as though no one in the office thought to check the most basic of features: empty your local account and start with a new map. D’oh! To that we say – our bad.
Those of you already using our iPhone application have spoken volumes about what you like, what you don’t like, and everything in between. One of the most common requested features was the ability to open and close branches within mind maps. In the new update, users now have the ability to toggle branches, thereby making it much easier to read large maps on a smaller screen. Likewise, many MindMeister iPhone app users requested the ability to add notes via a double click feature. A tap-tap gesture anywhere on the canvas now brings up the notes feature, allowing you to clarify, illustrate, or emphasize any points within your mind map. More features – above all editing of colors, nodes and styles on the device – are coming soon.
As a special thank you to those of you that were chomping at the bit to get your hands on our shiny new update, only to have it abruptly taken away, for a limited time only, we’re offering a special price reduction. Originally priced at €5.49 / $6.99, the MindMeister application for iPhone is now available in the app store for €3.99 / $4.99 until October 10th.
As a post script, we’d also like to send out a hearty thanks to the Apple iPhone application review team, for their understanding and speedy turn around in getting our update out to the world.
24Sep
As you might have read on Twitter we had to temporarily pull the latest update of the MindMeister iPhone app from the App Store because of a nasty bug that somehow made it through our QA. The new version 2.0.1 that we submitted about two weeks ago added some often requested features such as open/close branches and create new nodes by double-tapping, but unfortunately crashes on creation of new local maps. That’s a showstopper of course so we decided to remove the app from sale until we can get a fixed version approved by Apple.
So if you saw an update to the app in the App Store and tried to download it you might have received a “This item is no longer available” message. We’re very sorry for the inconveniences, please bear with us for a little while until we get Apple to review and release the fixed version.
P.S. Any ideas on how to expedite the App Store review process are very welcome…
20Aug
It is done – the new MindMeister application for iPhone and iPod touch has finally arrived in the App Store! Those who’ve followed its progress know that it has been a rather slow birth, but nonetheless we’ve made it there in the end.
The new MindMeister iPhone application allows you to take your online mind maps with you wherever you go. Just sign in to your MindMeister account when you first start the app, browse and download your mind maps for local editing and let the application take care of synchronising them with the cloud.
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Feature overview:
- Create, view, and edit maps online and offline
- Seamlessly sync maps with your online MindMeister account
- Share maps directly from iPhone
- Full drag & drop support
- Zoom in and out
- Add children and sibling nodes
- Support for icons, colors, styles *
- Favorites and pending maps
- Geistesblitz (quickly insert ideas)
- Use with or without MindMeister account
- * view only – edit support coming soon!
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MindMeister for iPhone + iPod touch is officially available in the App Store now for only $6.99 / €5.49. It works with any MindMeister account – even the free Basic one – and pretty much all iPhone / iPod touch versions (minimum OS 2.2.1).
Upgrading from MindMaker?
You might remember that the MindMeister iPhone app was developed from MindMaker, which we acquired from Ultravague a while ago (that’s also why the publisher in the App Store is not MindMeister but Ultravague). So if you’ve already been using MindMaker this upgrade is completely free for you!
When you start the new app the first time your existing mind maps will automatically be converted to the new format. Then, once you sign up for a MindMeister account (the Basic one will do – but feel free to go Premium straight away), all your local maps will be synched to the MindMeister server. This means online access and backup, import and export in many formats, easy sharing and collaboration, and much much more.
24Jun
After some rather embarrassing delays in the development of our native iPhone application (gulp), we’ve started the beta test this week finally. It’s a private beta with a few selected users that will run for another two weeks or so and we’re hoping to have the final application in the AppStore soon.
We’ve decided to make ten more slots available for the beta test and we want to offer them to the first ten people to comment on this post. So if you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch (whatever generation) please drop us a line here. You’ll then receive an email asking you for the UDID of your device which we need to compile an ad-hoc build of the app for you.
Update: Thanks for the enthusiasm, we’ve closed comments now and are trying to fit everybody into the beta test.
Update 2: The app has been submitted for review by Apple on August 6, we’re anxiously awaiting news every minute.
4Mar
We’re almost a quarter into the year and it’s time for a short update of what’s coming up in terms of releases and new features in MindMeister. It looks like it will be a busy time until Easter as we’ve been working on quite a few things in parallel at MeisterLabs and we hope there’ll be something here for everyone!
As you might have read we recently acquired the iPhone application MindMaker. We’ve spent a few weeks completing its integration into MindMeister and are now putting the last finishing touches onto a complete UI overhaul, hoping to be ready for a preview release by mid March with the public version to follow a week or so after that. To be honest we did underestimate the effort a bit, talking full-mouthed about an impending release date already weeks back – again, sorry about that!
In terms of the core product, the next release (no I won’t mention a date this time) will again contain lots of small improvements, plus one major new mapping feature: inline images, finally. You’ll be able to visually spice up your maps with resizable images that are displayed directly in the map. Upload images from your local hard disk, select them from the MindMeister image library or use our web wizard to search and embed images from such prominent places as Flickr or Google Images. Of course we’ll also have a WunderBild function (my personal favourite of the new release).
MindMeister users come from all corners of the world, and not all of them have English as their main language. Localization of the user interface was one the most requested additions so we’re quite proud to announce that internationalized versions of MindMeister will be available soon. We’ll start with Japanese and German, hopefully soon to be followed by other languages. Localization is done through partners in the respective countries who manage and own the translated versions, and we offer quite generous (and often exclusive) distribution deals. If you’re interested in becoming a regional partner please contact us.
Finally we’d like to give you a glimpse of a soon to be available new deployment option of MindMeister. Many companies – due to internal policies – simply cannot embrace all aspects of Software-as-a-Service, meaning that they need to host all their software inhouse. For those customers we’ll be offering a virtual MindMeister appliance – a self-contained and full-featured installation of the our server that can be deployed behind a company’s firewall. The first edition will be as a VMware appliance, with other editions to follow on demand. For more details on the MindMeister Virtual Enterprise Appliance please contact us.
28Jan
As some of the Techcrunchers (or followers of Ouriel Ohayon) among you might know already we recently entered into mobile device territory by acquiring MindMaker, one of the few native iPhone mind mapping tools currently available in the App Store. No need to bring up iPhone sales stats or any other justification for that decision here, as the reality today is that any self-respecting web (2.0) app needs an App Store sibling to complement its online service for users on the go.
Our ultimate goal is to provide our users with an exceptional mind mapping experience wherever they are and whatever device they use, and a native MindMeister iPhone app is a big step towards achieving that goal. We acquired MindMaker because it’s a great app and gives us a sound headstart in developing a MindMeister application, which we’ve wanted for months (the common name genealogy was just a bonus). The colorful look and feel of the maps in MindMaker is obviously a bit different to our mostly blue maps, but the rest of the app was so well done that it helped us a great deal getting started.
Melchior, the main developer of MindMaker, even gave us a hand in integrating it with the mindmeister.com API and getting the synching working. Here’s a quote from him from our press release:
MindMaker started out as a pet project but quickly became one of the leading iPhone apps for mind mapping”, says Melchior Brislinger, developer of MindMaker. “MindMeister’s acquisition brings integration with a premier web-based service and will accelerate the further development of MindMaker.
The ability to sync data with your online MindMeister account is pretty nifty, we think, particularly for a collaborative tool where different people might update the same data all the time. Create a draft map on the tube, sync it back to the cloud once your 3G connections is up again and let the others finalize it.
Right now we’re busy completing the integration. The app will support graphical views of a user’s mind maps similar to the one in our award-winning web interface. Essential editing functions will be supported on the iPhone / iPod Touch as well, with many more features to be added in upcoming releases.
Syncing between the iPhone and mindmeister.com will most likely be made available as a Premium feature – that means for paying MindMeister users only. Existing MindMaker customers will get a special discounted upgrade offer for a MindMeister Premium account.
So what about all the Blackberries, Nokias and Palm Pre’s out there? Well, for us it was clear that we wanted an iPhone app first, before following that up with other mobile interfaces. We’re Apple people and we admit it. And really, it’s just such a great device, no?
28Jan
Not too long ago we launched the Geistesblitz Tools – widgets for Mac OS Dashboard and Windows Vista for quickly inserting ideas into a MindMeister mind map – and received lots of great feedback. However, we also received some not so good feedback from users of older Windows versions who found themselves not being able to use these gadgets…
So, we’ve taken that feedback very seriously and now are proud to give you not one, not two – but three new versions of Geistesblitz, for Yahoo! Widgets, iGoogle and the iPhone. We hope this will make everybody happy! (if you’ve never heard of the Geistesblitz tools before you can check them out here first)
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Geistesblitz Yahoo! Widget
Yahoo! Widgets (formerly Konfabulator) is the most common widget engine out there and works on all recent Windows versions, as well as Mac OS. So we thought it only fair to support this as well!
System Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/Vista or Mac OS X
Download Now!
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Geistesblitz iGoogle Gadget
For those of you who already live and breathe through the web browser, the Geistesblitz gadget for iGoogle is the weapon of choice – one click to add the gadget to your iGoogle page and fire off ideas to MindMeister straight from your web portal!
Browser Requirements:
MSIE 6+, Firefox, Safari, Opera
Install Now!
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Geistesblitz iPhone Gadget
With 4 million phones sold within half a year, developing for the iPhone recently became more than a fashion statement. While you’ll have to wait a little longer for the full iPhone interface, here’s a cheeky gadget for your iPhone browser as a little taster!
System Requirements:
Apple iPhone or iPod Touch
Install Now!
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8Aug
As our newsletter subscribers already know I will be giving a talk about MindMeister at this year’s Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. Last year every attendee of the conference received a iPod, and this year they’re doing it with guess what – yup a brand new iPhone! Yesterday I sent Ismael – who is doing a great job organising the event – an email with lots of questions, one of which was a casual query whether speakers were included in that offer. He immediately got the essence of my mail and just replied “yes you’ll get an iPhone” 
. So expect to see full iPhone support of MindMeister some time in September after we’ve had a bit of time for testing! (some people mentioned that most of the interface actually works already in a way, but there are issues e.g. drag and drop in the map editor)
